«Most of the money was stolen not by power industry specialists, but by officials at the top of power,» President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov said today at a meeting with long-service employees and experts of the power industry.
According to him, power industry is a strategically important sector with many problems. Therefore, the current deplorable state of the industry requires special attention and urgent action.
The meeting was attended by the Minister of Energy and Industry Kubanychbek Turdubaev, Chairman of the Board of National Energy Holding Company OJSC Bakyt Sydykov, heads of energy companies and long-service employees of the industry Ilyas Davydov, Mirbek Batakanov, Lev Vasilyev, Ibragim Aliyev. They discussed the current situation, issues of reforming and tariff policy in the energy system, directions of its further development.
The head of state stressed that in the past, instead of solving a problem in this area, one problem was laid over another, loans were taken under the pretext of carrying out repair work. After that, the money was stolen and not invested in the sector.
As a result, the debt of the energy companies amounts to 129 billion soms, and the substations and lines, left without repair, have come to a bad state.
«Being at the source of rivers, we have become an importer, not an exporter of electricity. We are currently importing electricity from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. It should be shameful for us,» Sadyr Japarov said.
The President added that a way out of the crisis is being sought now without borrowing funds from outside, applying an effective tariff policy. At the same time, he is sure that there are some politicians who have a superficial understanding, or even understand everything well, but because of populism and attempts to appear caring for the people, they criticize tariff policy and their names are always in media headlines.
«They are looking for a way to get votes in the fall elections. There is a saying: «A politician thinks about the upcoming elections, and a statesman thinks about the future of the country.» Therefore, we will continue to work with you for the good of the republic. The results will be good. Most people will only be grateful,» Sadyr Japarov said.
He called on to end political indifference and voluntarism, expressing readiness to take any decisive action with the intention to solve the long-standing accumulated power sector problems.
The head of the Kyrgyz Republic noted that the sector is in a crisis situation because of the frivolous political speculations of some officials, who were only thinking about stealing more money.
«Problems were not resolved promptly. We’ve wasted a lot of time. I warn you, we will no longer tolerate this kind of negligence. We do not intend to deceive and distract people. At the same time, the reforms in the energy system that we are planning should not harm the population. The sooner you start achieving these goals, the faster you will get rid of such negative phenomena as lack of water and power outages in cold weather,» he said.
